1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an MHP television device and GUI application, in particular, to an MHP television device incorporating a GUI application whereby a user may select activities represented by respective strings on the GUI.
2. Description of the Related Art
MHP television devices such as MHP set-top boxes and integrated television sets have now been developed. These devices are capable of receiving hundreds of broadcast services including television channels, applications etc. The MHP television devices are also capable of storing many internal applications. It therefore becomes a problem for the user to view all of these possible activities and select those required. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) have been proposed which display representations of the activities as strings, for instance the names of the television channels or applications. These strings may be displayed in a tabular form which can be scrolled through by the user.
Because of the large number of activities available and, hence, the large number of strings to be displayed, this system is difficult for the user to use effectively.
It has also been proposed to display the activities in various groups called bouquets. Thus, a service provider may provide a list of all of the available sports channels such that the television device is able to display, as a bouquet, all of the sports channels. Although this reduces the number of activities presented to the user at any one time, where an individual bouquet refers to a large number of activities, it is still difficult for the user to find particular activities, such as channels or applications, of his or her choice. Furthermore, the user is forced to move between a number of different bouquets in order to find all of the activities falling within his or her personal taste.